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At the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs rushes in shouting like a maniac. He tells of the return of (fishing) hooks. SpongeBob is confused, and Mr. Krabs tells him that he should not go near a hook, or he will be brought up further than the surface and he will be eaten or sold at a gift shop. Patrick tells SpongeBob that the carnival has come to town and insists SpongeBob to come with him. He agrees, assuming that he's not quitting work but just taking a break. Much to SpongeBob's horror, though, the "carnival" is actually the set of hooks to Mr. Krabs warned everyone about. Patrick deliberately hooks himself. SpongeBob cries, until he sees Patrick again. He demands to know what happened, and he said that he floated down before he reached the surface and it is fun. Mr. Krabs catches them, and tells them off. However, the next day, Patrick persuades SpongeBob to play 'hooky' again. As a result, Patrick is taken up to the surface. Then, SpongeBob literally gets hooked, and now he thinks he's going to get pulled up to the surface as well. Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob that the only way to get the hook off is to take off his clothes right in front of Pearl and her friends, who laugh very hard. SpongeBob gets so upset that he cries out loud and runs back to his house. Whilst he is running, it then turns out that Squidward hooked SpongeBob in order to teach him a lesson; both Squidward and Mr. Krabs laugh sadistically. Meanwhile, Patrick is dropped off by a bus while trapped in a tuna can. He asks "Does somebody have a can opener?" and the episode ends.

The events in this episode are a metaphor for skipping school or work. This is shown by SpongeBob skipping work to see the hooks and getting "hooked" by one the next day ("hooky" is a slang term for truancy).

While promoting The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, the title character of that show appeared in the lower-right hand corner on the day of its premiere and due to one of his inventions temporarily transformed the cartoon into a puppet show during the scene where Mr. Krabs is making SpongeBob and Patrick recite an oath he is giving.

Character death was implied when a young fish's shoes was seen near the hooks and Patrick says a kid was there earlier and a skeleton of his/her mother was shown but deleted and both would have made the episode banned.

When SpongeBob came out of his house for work, he says "I'm ready" four times, but closed captions show him saying that line three times.

When Mr. Krabs' claw is in SpongeBob's eyes, his thumb is gone.

During the second shot where the fisherman is reeling in SpongeBob and Patrick, if you look closely, there are water drops on the camera lens.

In the video game SpongeBob Squarepants: SuperSponge there is a level based on this episode called "Fish Hooks Park."